HAVE YOU CARRIED out any random acts of kindness lately?

This weekend, the second Random Acts of Kindness Festival will take place in the west Cork town of Clonakilty, organised by Ger O’Donovan and his Macra na Feirme colleagues Noel Crowley, Teresa O’Leary, Jenny Murphy, and Padraig Griffin, and featuring a whole host of volunteers.

The festival will open tonight with a Rain Party on Connolly Street from 6.30pm.

Yes, a rain party.

“It’s a very Irish concern, the rain,” explained O’Donovan, “and we’re always complaining about it. We wouldn’t be the Emerald Isle only for it, and we wanted to focus on the positive side of the rain.”

They will have a stage turned into a giant rainbow, and ponchos for everyone present, plus some “light drizzle” is even promised. For those who don’t want to experience the rain, rest assured a “dry zone” will still be there.

Free

Every element of the event is free, proving, said O’Donovan, that:

it doesn’t cost a bit to enjoy yourself – it doesn’t cost a bit to put a smile on someone’s face – that is one of the greatest acts of kindness you can do anyway.

There will be live music from local bands including StanZa Traffic, Re Nua, street entertainment, pop-up performances by the West Cork Ukulele Orchestra and more.

The first RAOK event “went really well”, said O’Donovan. Their initiative won them some awards, which in turn brought them funding.

This year, the event is a Gathering event, and the organisers have decided to use the Gathering as a theme. There will be workshops on the Irish language, traditional music and the GAA, for example. All of the workshops will be run by volunteers and will be free to attend.

Emmet Square will be part of the festival on Saturday (20 July) with a unique event called The PARK (Park for Acts of Random Kindness), where they will bring “social media back to reality”.

Each area of the PARK is inspired by elements of Social Media websites:

There will be a ‘chat’ area where people can have free tea and food, a ‘groups’ area where local charities and groups can tell people about their work, an ‘event’ area with live music and performances and even a ‘games’ area.

Sunday (21 July) will see a return to Clonakilty Macra’s sandcastle competition as part of the Know Your Neighbour initiative.

The full schedule is available on Facebook, Twitter, and www.raokclon.com.

If you feel like doing some random acts of kindness, over at the Daily Edge, they have some suggestions.

Why not tell us in the comments what your most recent act of kindness was…

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